Vendors launch onslaught of new phones

The 3GSM World Congress may be two weeks away, but things are heating up already.

The past week alone, we've seen Samsung, Motorola, LG, Dopod and O2 announce new handsets for their 2007 product lineup. LG started the ball rolling with its Prada Phone which sports a full touchscreen display just like the Apple iPhone. This was followed by O2 unveiling four upcoming handhelds with 3G support, its biggest launch to date.

Mid-week, Samsung made headlines with its new slimmer-than-ever Ultra Edition successors, while Motorola offered a sneak of its upcoming lineup which will include new RIZR, KRZR and Q upgrades. Finally, Dopod overturned market expectations by announcing the launch of its U1000 (HTC Athena) UMPC in Taiwan this week. More handsets are expected over the next couple of weeks. As usual, we'll be updating you with the latest news and pictures.

Motorola unveils new KRZR, RIZR and Q2

The world's number two mobile phone maker has offered a sneak peak of its latest handsets to be announced at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress held in Spain. In the lineup will be 3G variants of the KRZR and RIZR as well as EDGE and HSDPA versions of the Q.

The 3G-enabled KRZR K3 sports a similar design and feature set as the original KRZR K1, except that it comes with a second VGA camera for video calls. The RIZR Z8 appears to be a 3G upgrade to the earlier RIZRs, with a slight cosmetic change in colors.

Motorola will also be introducing new additions in its Q smart phone lineup, namely the much-anticipated GSM version Moto Q EDGE, as well as Q2, which will come in HSDPA and EV-DO flavors. Expect also to find a handful of new W-series handsets and new additions to the SCPL lineup at 3GSM.

Click here for larger images of the KRZR K3, RIZR Z8 and Moto Q EDGE.

Samsung's Ultra Editions just got slimmer

If you thought the Ultra Edition 6.9 was flimsily anorexic, you ain't seen nothing yet. The Korean giant has shaved off yet another 1mm, producing a candy bar that's 5.9mm thin. Not good enough? Well, there's its Ultra Edition 12.9 slider which, according to various reports on the Web, will emerge 2mm trimmer after a nip-and-tuck.

The Ultra Edition 5.9 may well be the slimmest candy-bar phone in the world, but it doesn't skim on the feature set. It will apparently come with a 3.2-megapixel camera, onboard music and video player, Bluetooth connectivity and 80MB of internal memory. From the images posted on the Internet, the 5.9 does not have a camera on the screen side. Thus, it's unlikely to have 3G or HSDPA onboard.

The Ultra Edition 10.9, on the other hand, takes the crown for being one of the slimmest sliders out there. Again, small doesn’t mean less here. It packs a 3.2-megapixel camera, 80MB internal memory, a music and video player, and a microSD memory card slot. Like the 5.9, the 10.9 seems to be a non-3G/HSDPA unit.

While Samsung Asia was unable to respond to our query on availability of the new phones in Asia, we do know the Ultra Edition 5.9, at least, will launch in Europe come March. Going by Samsung's usual practice of rolling out its Ultra Editions in a trio, we can expect to see a clamshell model announced before 3GSM next month, to complete the new series. An Ultra Edition 8.9 clamshell perhaps?

Note: The image shown on the left is the Ultra Edition 6.9, not the new Ultra Editions, as official images have not been released.

LG shows off Prada phone

It's official. After months of speculation and supposed leaked photos on the Web, the Korean company has finally announced it will be launching the KE850, or as it is more commonly known, the Prada Phone by LG. A result of collaborative efforts with fashion house Prada, the new handset is touted as the world's first completely touchscreen mobile phone, generating comparisions with Apple's iPhone.

Whether this apple-to-Apple observation proves counterproductive to LG's Prada branding remains to be seen. For now, official specs list the triband handset as sporting a wide touchscreen display, a simple, yet uncluttered design, a slim form factor and an onboard 2-megapixel camera.

While the Prada Phone doesn't feature the smart phone capabilities of the iPhone or 3G/HSDPA connectivity, the former comes with most of the standard cellular features such as Bluetooth, USB 2.0, onboard music and video player, microSD card slot, FM radio as well as document viewer. Its biggest advantage is that it will be available in Asia far earlier than the iPhone which has a 2008 launch date planned for this part of the world. According to LG Singapore, the Prada Phone will ship to Europe in late February, with Asia following in March. It is expected to retail price at US$776 (based on reports from our sister site CNET.com).

Sony Ericsson screens its Bravia TV-phone

We've been feeling the Walkman and Cyber-shot love from Sony Ericsson phones. With the success of the mobile merger with its parent's music and photography lines, the handset manufacturer has been unstoppable. So we weren't too surprised when it announced that it was yanking yet another Sony brand for a mobile makeover. Meet the Bravia TV-phone, which uses a display based on the Bravia technology.

Scheduled for launch this June, the Japan-only SO903iTV offers a 3-inch widescreen with a slide function for horizontal TV viewing. There's also time-shift video recording for a more complete TV experience, aside from the standard 2-megapixel CMOS camera and microSD card slot.

Now all we have to do is cross our fingers really hard, and what do you know? Pigs might fly, and a similar TV-phone model could be coming soon to our fair shores.

Check out the other new DoCoMo phones here.

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